The rapid emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web has created an environment in which anybody in the world who can connect to the Internet through a personal computer is generally able to access the universe of information that is available via Web sites. Electronic mail (a.k.a. e-mail) has also become ubiquitous due to its ease of use and its low cost. The emergence of these capabilities has been spurred by technological advances in various areas, including microprocessors (both computing speed and miniaturization), computer operating systems and interfaces (e.g., Windows, Macintosh, and Unix), and Internet browsers (e.g., Netscape Navigator). In turn, the rapidity of increase of the technology has had a direct positive impact upon productivity, and the world economy in general. Thus, there is an incentive for high-tech entities to create further improvements in the state of the art with respect to the Internet.
An online forum is a communications interchange in which people may communicate with others through successive electronic transmissions between respective computer systems. An online forum, or any other type of distributed computer services, may be implemented on a distributed computer system such as that shown in FIG. 1. Forum participants (equivalently, users of the computer services) typically are scattered across a large geographical area and communicate with one or more central server systems 100 through respective client systems 102 (e.g., a personal or laptop computer). In practice, the server system 100 typically will not be a single monolithic entity but rather will be a network of interconnected server computers, possibly physically dispersed from each other, each dedicated to its own set of duties and/or to a particular geographic region. In such a case, the individual servers are interconnected by a network of communication links, in known fashion. One such server system is “America Online” from America Online Incorporated of Virginia (AOL).
Each client system 102 runs client software that allows it to communicate in a meaningful manner with corresponding software running on the server system 100. The client systems 102 communicate with the server system 100 through various channels, such as a modem 104 connected to a telephone line 106 or a direct Internet connection using a transfer protocol such as Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). The server system 100 is responsible for receiving input from the client systems 102, manipulating the collective body of input information (and possibly information from other sources) into a useful format, and retransmitting the formatted information back to one or more clients 102 for presentation on an output device, such as a display screen.
A specific aspect of the Internet “culture” is the “chat room” phenomenon. A chat room is a virtual space (i.e., an electronic channel) in which some specific communications activity is ongoing. In some cases, the activity is an application, such as a computer game. In many other cases, the activity is a simple conversation, or “chat session”, between the participants. Referring to FIG. 2, a chat room 200 is illustrated, in which the various participants 204 (e.g., “Allens9”, “JOSHUAALEX”, etc.) may enter text which appears in a scrolling text window 202 on each participant's computer display screen. In the example in FIG. 2, the chat room 200 has 22 participants whose identities (or “screen names”) are listed in a scrolling window 210. A participant 204 may respond to the comment of another participant 204 by entering a line of text in an edit box 206 and activating (e.g., by clicking with a pointer device, such as a mouse) a SEND button 208. In response, the text in the scrolling text window 202 scrolls upwards and the newly entered line of text is displayed at the bottom of the scrolling text window 202. In the illustrated example, the last participant to enter a comment was JOSHUAALEX, who typed “TEXAS”.
The chat room 200 shown in FIG. 2 is “public”, meaning that it is generally open to any user of the online service who accesses it, and it typically has multiple participants who were placed in the chat room by the computer-service provider and who most likely never have met or conversed with one another before. A comment by a participant in a public forum may be seen by all of the participants of the chat room. If a participant desires some privacy, that participant may open and enter a “private” chat room (for example, by clicking on a “Private Room” button 212), and thereafter invite one or more other participants to enter the private chat room, which can be accessed exclusively by the originators and their invitees. Once in a private forum, participants may communicate with one another without fear that uninvited participants will be able to see their comments. It is also possible to have a semi-public chat room, which is open to a specified group of users.
AOL has created the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM™) system. The AIM system allows a user to create an electronic messaging medium known as a “Buddy List”™ of others (such as friends and family) with whom the user often interacts while online and send instant messages (IMs) to those users. The AIM system automatically informs the user whenever a member of that user's buddy list is online. Thus, the two buddies can communicate directly (i.e., chat) because they both are online and are aware of each other's presence.
Another development by AOL in this arena is the concept of “Evil”. This concept arose in recognition of the fact that users can and do abuse the privileges afforded them by the abilities to communicate instantly with others and to transmit large volumes of information. Such abuse may occur, for example, when a user sends messages having objectionable content, or when a user overuses the AIM system by sending excessive numbers of messages to other users. Another form of abuse occurs when a user sends files that contain large amounts of data to another user, so that when the recipient tries to open or download the files, or even perform other activities, the recipient's computer system is slowed down due to the processing of the received files.
AOL's creation of the Evil concept is an attempt to remedy this and other types of abuse. If a user perceives that another user is behaving badly (e.g., repeatedly sending unwanted IMs), the offended user can “evil”, or warn, the misbehaving user, thereby increasing the misbehaving user's Evil level. The effect of eviling a user typically is small but cumulative. Over time, if a user has been eviled a sufficient number of times, that user's ability to use system resources (e.g., send IMs) will be deliberately slowed as a punishment. If the abuse continues and even more eviling occurs, the abuser eventually can be involuntarily logged off the computer network. The underlying notion is to promote computer etiquette and basic courtesy in the online (and particularly chat room) environment. Giving users the power to “evil” one another gives them the ability to create a self-policing society, thus alleviating the Internet Service Provider (ISP) from having to perform the policing function. Further details on eviling techniques can be found in U.S. Ser. No. 09/076,483, filed May 13, 1998, entitled “Regulating Users of Online Forums”, and U.S. Ser. No. 09/076,484, filed May 13, 1998, entitled “Self-Policing, Rate Limiting Online Forums”, both of which are incorporated by reference.
Although it is possible for a chat room to be completely free-form dialogue on any subject, it is common for chat rooms to be organized around a specific subject for discussion. The proliferation of the chat room phenomenon has created a need for a mechanism to optimally arrange a chat room environment to meet the needs of the users. For example, a given user might desire to have a private conversation with a specific group of three other users on a particular subject. Alternatively, the user might wish to play a particular computer game jointly with two friends, each located at a different remote site. Presently, if such a user wishes to engage in such activity, the user can either 1) find an existing chat room where the desired activity is ongoing and attempt to join in, but not necessarily having any control over the identities or number of other participants; or 2) send an IM or e-mail message to the other users with whom the user wishes to engage in the activity and invite them to do so. Typically, the inviting user will receive either no response at all (e.g., if the recipient ignores the invitation) or a binary response (i.e., yes or no) to the invitation.
In light of the foregoing, the present inventors have recognized the need for a powerful and flexible negotiation mechanism, whereby users desiring to communicate or otherwise interact with each other can “bargain” with one another in order to agree ultimately upon a mutually acceptable communication (e.g., chat room) or other interaction (e.g., multiple user computer game) context.